


Fiery Sunrise

by RedEris



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Emetophobia, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-11-22 08:31:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20871257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedEris/pseuds/RedEris
Summary: Dervhal's attack on the palace and its aftermath, told from Avad's point of view.





	Fiery Sunrise

The sound was everywhere, beating against him, inside of him. Avad’s head was splitting open; his stomach was trying to rebel but his muscles couldn’t coordinate enough to do anything about it. He pressed his eyes shut against the nauseating distortion of the world around him. Dervahl’s gloating voice was a wasted afterthought, barely registered. This was how Ersa had died, and this was how he would die.

Under all the agony, the tiny part of him that sat outside and observed was almost glad. Finally, the hammer had fallen. He had always expected to die for his father’s sins. His brother had. His people had. His lover had. He was tired of fighting it, tired of trying to fix what was hopelessly broken, and now Ersa was gone. If it would end this pain, he welcomed it. If only Itamen could be spared…

And then she came. Aloy. He opened his eyes to her enraged shout, and she flashed by in a blur of red hair, and the horrible, all-encompassing sound stopped. Just--stopped.

She was gone again long before he pulled himself together. He could hear her voice and Derval’s, somewhere on a lower terrace, and then the piercing screams of Glinthawks, agonizing against his raw nerves. Finally, he pushed himself up to his knees (and vomited), and then at last to his feet (and vomited again), as his Carja guards gathered around him, terrified and confused. Marad, the years heavier on his back, was still on hands and knees when Avad stumbled dizzily towards the sounds of fighting.

It was over before he got there. He nearly staggered under the wave of relief when he saw them, Dervahl on the pavement, Aloy and Erend standing over him. Erend arrested in motion, full of power and fury, Aloy turned towards him, Dervahl almost an afterthought already. Avad took a steadying breath, shrugged his headdress straight, and stepped forward to deal with Dervahl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time he heard Aloy’s light step on the stairs behind him, Avad had had more time to compose himself. Nobody seemed to know how long the effects of Dervahl’s weapon would linger, but at least he could see straight. He’d done some thinking, too.

As he rose to greet her, Aloy looked him up and down dispassionately.

“You look better.” Her voice rose on the end, questioning, and he nodded. 

“Thanks to my attentive healers. And you, of course.” She was watching him with that unnerving attentiveness she seemed to give everything. He took a deep breath.

“Aloy, to say you have my gratitude feels woefully insufficient. You saved my life. You saved Meridian. And because of you there will be justice for Ersa’s murder. We can mourn her knowing the truth, without painful uncertainty. It’s hard to imagine where we’d be without--”

Aloy held up a hand to cut him off.

“Avad, stop. There’s something urgent we have to--”

“I know, but please, just listen for a moment.” He had to get it out, before she was gone again. “I want you to stay in Meridian.”

Aloy’s eyes narrowed, and Avad’s heart quailed.

“What? Why?”

He’d promised himself he wouldn’t sound desperate, but the words tumbled out. “Well, to start with, you kept the city from going up in flames. You’re strong, shrewd--capable. I could use someone like you at my side.” He finished up with a smile that felt painfully awkward.

Aloy stared at him for so long that his heart shriveled up in his chest.

“And what does that mean, ‘at my side’? At your side like Ersa was?”

“No! That is...that’s not what…” But they both knew that was what he’d meant. It wasn’t what he’d _meant_ to mean. It had sounded so reasonable--trying to secure such an obvious asset to the kingdom--but he couldn’t lie and say he had meant it as a king, and not as a man to a woman.

“By the Sun. You are right, I do seem to be getting ahead of myself. Accept my apologies, please.”

Aloy looked out over the maizelands for a moment, and then sighed.

“Look, Avad. I nearly died once, too, and I lost the man who raised me at the same time. I’m...glad I was alone a lot after that. Better that way.”

Avad smiled ruefully. “I am never alone.”

“Right,” Aloy said, “So I’m going to give you a pass for what you just said. But you’re going to think about it really hard and figure yourself out, because I am pretty done with trying to be what other people want me to be. And I have a long way to go, probably far from Meridian, before I’ve done what I set out to do.”

“Of course.” Avad stifled the urge to rub his aching temples. “I hope you find what you’re after, Aloy. And if need be, I will come to your aid--as sure as the Sun’s rising.” Sun’s rays--even that sounded needy now.

Aloy smiled--tentative and brief, but definitely a smile. 

“Thank you.”

She left, and Avad stayed, still in the deepening dusk. He thought. Round and round he thought, and he couldn’t tell which thoughts were actually his and which his pain, his fear, his screaming loneliness, his loss and violation. But he did feel confident of one thing. Ersa would have loved Aloy, and Aloy was not Ersa. And even though, yes, it was absolutely too soon, he was very afraid that he’d once again followed his heart somewhere a king should not go.


End file.
